Ahead of the 2018 African Economic Conference (AEC) holding in Kigali, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has reaffirmed that African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has the potential to create a titanic shift in intra-African trade.

The AfCFTA which is the world’s biggest free trade agreement since the establishment of the World Trade Organization, brings together the continent’s 55-member states of the African Union with a combined market of more than 1.2 billion people.

UNECA noted that AfCFTA widely acknowledged as an important milestone, has the potential to boost intra-African trade by eliminating import duties, and double trade, if non-tariff barriers are also reduced.

This, according to UN agency, will bring the continent’s current intra-Africa trade number currently standing at 15 percent to 52.3 percent compared to 54 percent in the North America Free Trade Area, 70 percent within the European Union (EU) and 60 percent in Asia.

UNECA’s observation was contained in a statement issued in Abidjan on Wednesday by Aristide Ahouassou, Communication Officer of African Development Bank Group (AfDB).

The statement noted that the theme of this year’s AEC; “Regional and Continental Integration for Africa’s Development” is aligned with the AfDB’s strategy to promote strong, shared and sustainable growth in Africa.

It may be recalled that over the past three years, the AfDB has funded projects worth US$1.3 billion and regional public goods valued at US$ 187.6 million. The Bank’s policy is to ensure all regional projects allocate 10 percent of budget to soft infrastructure interventions.

“Our vision is for a stable, integrated and prospering continent of competitive, diversified and sustainably growing economies, participating fully in global trade and investment” AfDB’s President Akinwumi Adesina said.

As part of its mandate, the Bank Group continues to lead in several continental wide initiatives targeting both “hard” and “soft” infrastructure such as trade and services facilitation policies and instruments.

These initiatives, according to the statement, include the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), and the Boosting Intra-African Trade.

Buttressing the theme of the conference, the statement said: “If you have visited Rwanda, no doubt you would have heard of Umuganda, a vast clean-up operation that takes place every last Saturday of the month. The transformative civic operation has gained the country global recognition. Umuganda means “coming together for a common purpose to achieve an outcome.

“That is exactly what the 13th AEC to be hosted in Kigali from 3 to 5 December 2018, hopes to do.
Uniting African think-tanks, researchers, policy makers, public and private sector leaders as well as representatives of Regional Economic Organizations, the meeting is determined to push the integration agenda for Africa to new heights”.

The gathering comes just nine months after African leaders signed an agreement establishing the AfCFTA. Organizers say this year’s conference will be short on theory but big on practical solutions to advance the continent’s regional integration agenda, especially the AfCFTA’s implementation.

The statement further explained that Africa’s challenges are well known, adding that it is for this reason, that the AfDB has positioned Integrating Africa as one of its High 5s development programme.

It added that Bank will continue to support and scale up transformative initiatives that seek to boost regional integration, adding that the institution is equally committed to work with stakeholders.

“RECs need support to deliver on “soft” infrastructure, to harmonize investment and engineering codes, and ensure quality and certification standards”, the statement further noted.

Lending credence to this, AfDB Director, Regional Integration, Moono Mupotola, said: “It is imperative to seize this moment and opportunity and call upon all stakeholders taking part in the upcoming African Economic Conference, to dig deep and come up with relevant and effective outcomes that will lead and guide our future actions”.

He noted that one key highlight of the conference will be the launch of the Bank’s flagship report, the 2018 Visa Openness Index, adding that Africa and indeed the global community will be waiting for important outcomes demonstrating how far we have come in the process.

“The Bank will be looking to regional experts to determine the best ways to fast-track Africa’s integration. For that to happen, it is imperative to move efficiently and with great speed to address the issue of political will, harmonisation of legislation and non-tariff barriers.

“Through all this, the Bank remains optimistic that cooperation through the REC’s is the quickest route to bringing together the 54 fragmented African markets. And as with Umuganda, the task at hand may be challenging and difficult, but with the entire community united with a common purpose, achieving greater integration is not so far away” the statement stressed.

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Perform or get fired – EEDC chairman, Emeka Ofor to staff

The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, EEDC, has declared that it would no longer condone incompetent members of staff.

It has, therefore, vowed that such staff would be disengaged and new ones recruited to meet the company’s target of quality service to the people.

The chairman of the company, Chief Emeka Ofor, made this known during the EEDC maiden special recognition of some of its staff.

At the event held in Enugu, Chief Ofor commended the 22 members of staff for their efforts to improve the service delivery to customers, urging them to double their effort to support the company.

Offor, who lamented the huge amount invested in the company without any dividend for five years, disclosed that the company has only achieved 6% of its target in 5 years.

He said that some staff contributed to the loss as they connived with customers who don’t want to pay their bill and turn their eyes from what they were supposed to do.

“Today, we are at the final stage of 2018; we took over this company in November 2013. When the Federal Government, FG, was handing over the company to us, the intention was that the Disco will make progress and since then, we have been having a lot of issues.

“From 2013 to 2018 is 5 years and we have been able to achieve 6% of our target, which means what we are achieving is not acceptable before me.

“We have a lot of issues that we are passing through because you have people who are not doing exactly what they should do,”he said..

Bemoaning the high rate of power theft, he said, “We have members of staff who connive with customers who don’t want to pay their bills, we have some who are neck deep in corruption, we have some who turn their eyes in what they are supposed to do and do illegal connections, that is what is causing these problems,”

“I have no regret but by January 2019, the game is going to change and it must change for good. We have people who are doing these works and you can see that some of those people are inefficient and not doing what they are supposed to be doing. We will have no option, instead of keeping these people, we will look for competent hands to support the company or else we lose the investment”, Ofor said.

Earlier in an address by the Managing director, Okey Nwosu, commended the beneficiaries for their effort towards achieving success and urged those who couldn’t meet the criteria to show commitment.

Nwosu regretted the death of one of the staff in the line of duty and disclosed that the company had launched safety initiative to make sure that the staff would be completely accident free while discharging their duties.

He pointed out that the company would make the safety tips discussion as the first interaction in any gathering by the company to allow the staff internalise the important of safety.

Nwosa, who disclosed that the company would become the number one electricity distribution company in the country, stated that they would use all the indices to attain success.

Challenge in Electricity Sector is Lack of Cost-Effective-Tariff, Expert Says

An Energy Expert, Mr. Ettu Mohammed, has said the lack of electricity in the country is due largely to the lack of cost effective tariff in the procurement of electricity across its entire value chain.

Reacting to a recent report published in some national dailies, Mohammed, in a statement recently, faulted the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN, on his alleged comment that “It is not FG’s problem if Nigerians lack electricity.”

The energy expert averred that the minister’s comment was shocking to Nigerians because it did not acknowledge the true situation which is that the federal government has 40 percent stake in both the Discos and GenCos and a 100 percent stake in TCN, stressing that the problem confronting the sector should be shared on the basis of 60 to 40 ratio, adding, that inconsistency has trailed the last three years of the ministry with regards to power supply.

Mohammed said: “On the other hand, one of the most important issues affecting the sector’s success – a cost reflective tariff – gets almost no mention at all. How can the issues be fixed if we keep avoiding the major problem?”

While attributing issues on the state of the economy, he explained that PHCN was sold to its successor companies, followed by the devaluation of the Naira, energy was sold for between N25-N36/kWh which is equivalent to 18.4¢/kWh, stressing that this value is at par with many countries on the planet.

“The minister forgot to inform Nigerians that the power sector is 100% import-dependent, hence the devaluation had a devastating effect on the sector’s revenue expense-wise but nothing changed on the income side despite the devaluation.

“Today, energy is sold for between N25-36/kWh which is now equivalent to 8.4¢/kWh. That is over 54% loss against a business which is 100% import dependent. How will they survive?

He acknowledged that the current license holders may not be as technically savvy as we will prefer them to be but this single adverse financial challenge is sufficient to kill any form of investment in any sector regardless of the technical competence of its operators.

“They will continually be engaged in a losing struggle to recoup their initial investment as well as pay off the debts they owe banks and other sources from where they got funds from.” he said.

Mohammed also accused the ministry of not making efforts to check energy theft through sustainable and enforceable policies that will address the problem.

He averred: “While I cannot question the honorable minister’s prowess in law and jurisprudence, a critical sector like the power sector needs a technical hand …preferably an Electrical Engineer. I believe this is the main reason why he has kept pushing a narrative of a phantom 2,000MW stranded power which is non-existent or an acclaimed accomplishment of 7,000 MW generation capacity whereas we already had the capacity to generate 6.2GW as at 2014 and yet we remain saddled with gas constraints and a weak wheeling network which has not improved substantially in the last four years.

“Before we go any further, here are some facts. As at 2013, Nigeria was wheeling 3,000MW-plus on the transmission grid. This is still the same average we are battling with in 2018. It is instructive and worrisome to say Nigeria has not wheeled 4000MW averagely in our 58 years of existence. The one-off incident where we wheeled over 5,000MW on only one day does not count.”

According to him, the data of the wheeled and generated energy since 2013 is available on NERC website captioned as daily energy watch for Nigerians to see.

Electricity consumption per capita, according to him, has dropped because it is recorded against the nation’s growing population, adding: “There is at least 8% loss on wheeling and distribution and another 10% is exported to our neighbors leaving Nigerians to battle with less than 3,000MW. All over Africa, nations are building power plants in record time as Egypt just unveiled a 14.4GW plant in 27.5 months for less than $6.5 billion.”